Former Bellator Champ Kyoji Horiguchi to Return at Rizin 38 on Sept. 25

Former Bellator bantamweight champion Kyoji Horiguchi will return to action at Rizin 38 against Yuto Hokamura on Sept. 25.

The Japanese promotion recently confirmed that pairing along with four other bouts: Hiromasa Ougikubo vs. Soo Chul Kim at bantamweight; Kyohei Hagiwara vs. Chihiro Suzuki at featherweight; Juri Ohara vs. Luiz Gustavo Felix dos Santos at lightweight and Shoma Shibisai vs. Callyugibrainn Marinho Borges de Oliveira at heavyweight.

Rizin 38 takes place at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama Japan and also includes a Super Rizin portion of the card, which will feature a previously reported exhibition boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Mikuru Asakura.

The 31-year-old Horiguchi has lost three of his last four professional fights. He last appeared as part of Bellator’s 135-pound grand prix, where he dropped a five-round verdict to Patrick Mix in the quarterfinals of the bracket on April 23. Horiguchi’s lone victory during that stretch came when he knocked out Kai Asakura in a bantamweight title bout at Rizin 26 in December 2020. While Horiguchi is still the Rizin bantamweight champion, his matchup with Hokamura will be a non-title bout.

Hokamura went 1-2 in 2021 and is coming off back-to-back decision defeats to Naoki Inoue and Yuki Motoya under the Rizin banner. The Pancrase and Deep veteran has compiled a 14-11-2 mark over the course of a professional tenure that began in 2011.